Japan's Kyoto University to distribute lecture course on 'edX'

19:37, May 22, 2013

OSAKA, May 22 (Xinhua) -- Japan's Kyoto University said that it would start next year to distribute on the Internet its lecture course to the world through "edX", a free online learning initiative composed of the leading global institutions, including the founding universities Harvard and MIT in the United States, local press reported Wednesday.

The reports said that the second oldest national university in Japan will launch a series of lectures titled "Chemistry of Life" taught by professor Motonari Uesugi via the online platform which the educational institute joined Tuesday.

It will the first Japanese university that joins the platform on the heels of 14 prestigious higher education institutions in the world, including Peking University in China and Hong Kong University of Science & Technology, the daily Kyoto Shimbun News reported.

Naoko Tosa, professor of Institute for Information Management and Communication of Kyoto University, who has led a team to open its educational resources on a global level, told Xinhua that the decision was taken as a part of the university's aggressive scheme since 2005 to improve the visibility of the institution by opening its door to various people in the world, beyond its students and researchers plus teachers. "After joining edX, we can easily expect to contribute to human' s knowledge assets and share them with more people in the world while prompting our international exchange channels,"the professor said.

She said the university will increase the number of online courses in the future.